So I have been messing around and have made a few tiki heads. I have only used a 14 inch chainsaw and then done all the details with flat hardware style metal chisels. I just bought an arbortech Pro 4 carving disc for a grinder which I hope will help with speed, as well as greater detail and curved edges. Other than simply this grinder are there any suggestions on toold to get some of these smooth finishes you all have? I feel like I have such rudimentary, roughed out work after looking at some of the tikis around here.

Also I had a question about sealing the heads. I have heard Tiki oil, and used Polyurethane on a pine one a while ago. Here is the look of my work thus far using just a chainsaw and flat chisels. I would love help in trying to break my work out to the quality of some of the people on this site. A lot of you guys are just fantastic. I am reposting pics of the 2 tiki heads I have recently done so you can get an idea of how far my work gets, and what results I have with just a chainsaw and chisels. Any advice and help would be great! I have been reading up but thought it may be easier to just post a new thread, because it was taking a while to find my answers.

Looks like you have a pretty good "foundation" to start with Stockup. I think
that most of us "hobby" carvers had first efforts that look like yours, just a
little "rough around the edges." My only suggestion would be to keep going when
you feel that urge to call it quits and start another one. You will find that
the more you try to polish up your skills the better results you will achieve.
I use chisels for the rough work on my tikis....then an angle grinder to "sand"
or smooth the large accessible surfaces...and then good old fashioned sand paper
to get the desired results. I generally reach the point where I feel finished,
but I have a close friend who pushes me on to do better work...with comments like
"take your time---you can do a lot better than that----look in here---this can
be better"..etc. Find someone to push you a little and you will like the end
result. Nice starting effort....

Nice style! Bust out a sander and wear that puppy baby but smooth! Sanding is a pain but is worth it. Sometimes sanding gets too much, put it aside for a little then get back into it.
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Do you guys have any thoughts on sealing, burning or coloring? I used on one of them just a small propane torch, and tried to burn to bring out the highlights. I saw some tikis that looked to have used woodstain, and then Teak pil to seal them. Any other products for both of thses uses you would suggest experimenting with?

stain them using anything you want. I use water based EF stains from rockler, apply with a foam brush and wipe off.

seal it with polyurathane, polycrillic, marine grade varnish, whatever. The brush on variety generally provides better coverage than the spray on. Once again (with the exception of the marine grade varnish) I try and use the water based applications.
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